Awesome

One of the best things I've seen in a long time:

The other best thing I've seen in a long time:

I love college football.

Why Obama is a Failure and Why We Didn't Have Any Other Option

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but now I have something to post about that isn't my personal life.

When Obama was elected I literally cheered and danced about my apartment excited about change. Now I'm so upset with him I could cry. The only change that has happened is things have gotten worse.

Example 1: CARS was a terrible program that failed miserably. It lost us money and had no positive economic value whatsoever (If you owned an 89 Grand Caravan chances are you can't afford a new vehicle.).

Example 2: All gasoline now is made of 10% ethanol. In older vehicles and some newer ones, the ethanol destroys fuel lines, clogs injectors and causes evaporative emissions and fuel consumption to increase, not decrease. Just the thing the government was trying to combat with the CARS program (Hello, anyone home McFly?). These problems result in expensive vehicle repairs, even in brand new vehicles that aren't designed to handle ethanol containing fuel. Again, if you're driving an older vehicle, you likely cannot afford the repairs. I think the theory behind this bassactward logic is to actually force citizens to give their already fuel efficient vehicles up for a new car that can handle the new fuel, which in turn forces auto makers to produce more cars that handle this fuel. But remember, ethanol fuel causes a significant and noticeable decrease in fuel mileage. Have you noticed gas prices have not gone down? I have. Corn is used to produce ethanol, which doesn't seem so bad because it is technically a renewable resource and I'm sure it makes corn farmers in Iowa pretty happy (the price of corn has shot up as a result.). But there are four problems with this: 1) The runoff from the insecticides have washed into the Gulf of Mexico, destroying the ecosystem. Fish, algae, turtles, birds, the whole nine yards are being poisoned as a result. 2) The price of wheat has increased, so foods made from wheat (which is damned near everything) have shot up as well (In Texas it's not as bad, but on a visit to see my parents in Missouri, I was shocked to see the price of bread because wheat farmers have abandoned wheat in favor of the more profitable corn.). 3) There are only so many places corn will grow successfully. Farmers must rotate their crops so the soil will regenerate the nutrients required to grow the corn meaning any given corn field can only yield so much every couple of years. 4) The fuel additive needed to eliminate the ethanol in this new fuel is very expensive; about $30 a quart. As far as I have found there is only one manufacturer of this additive (Stabil) and one ounce is needed for every 10 gallons. So one and a half ounces per fill for an average vehicle will require 3 ounces per month (granted you only travel 30 miles per day, and you own a relatively fuel efficient vehicle) increasing the price of gasoline by about 3 cents a gallon, granted you pay $2.55 a gallon.

Example 3: If you're not familiar with the Gonzales flag, it is a flag from the Texas Revolution that depicts a cannon with the words "Come and take it" written below it. That's how I feel about "gun control". I don't own a gun, but if I wanted to have one, I want the right to own one. Obama wants to take guns from the honest people who have registered weapons (They have to be registered, how else is the government supposed to find them?). This isn't going to take the guns from gang members, because they buy black market, unregistered and illegal (Guns like AK-47s and other fully automatic rifles.) weapons. Sure there are the few crazies who shoot up military bases (Ft. Hood), and other random places, but that is a far lesser threat than gang members who shoot entire families because they are retaliating for whatever dumb reason. Gangs are always going to find away to aquire weapons and taking them from good citizens isn't going to stop that.

Why we didn't have any other choice:

1) Sarah Palin would've been and is a worthless politician and leader. Her book is so unpopular there is a television commercial which gives her book away for an additional $4.95 to the price of the product. She's the dumbest person I have ever known of.

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2) McCain has lost his marbles. The dude's nuts. Just look at any interviews from his election campaign and you'll see. There are just too many to embed.

See? We had no other choice. Just like in South Park, we had to choose between a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich. Just because we got the one we wanted doesn't mean its good.

How will I survive Sunday?

So first of all, Hook 'em!

After a series of misadventures, I was able to catch the last half of the Texas game, which was apparently the better half. From what I've read on Yahoo sports, the Longhorns had another miserable first half. But honestly, watching the second half I wasn't impressed with McCoy's performance. He isn't playing consistently enough for me to feel comfortable to rely on his passing game. The 34-24 win over Tech was a relief, but wider margin win would have been nice. We may have another Championship team, if they can brush the rest of the cobwebs of McCoy next week against UTEP.

All my fantasy football players are playing in the earlier games today, and I can't watch any of it because the cable company found out we were not paying for it. The previous tenants apparently never had it shut off when they moved, so we were using it. To make matters worse, because we had cable, we never bought a digital converter box, so we won't get any signal anyway. I'm considering heading over to Doc's later tonight to watch the Cowboys game, but I don't really want to spend any money.

I love football season, but I hate not being able to watch it on TV

I'm a sucker for technology

So far I've spent this morning downloading fantasy football podcasts, going to Best Buy and reading blogs. My trip to Best Buy was fruitful, but not as much as I had liked. When I sat out this morning, I had intended to purchase an iPod Nano. I want one of the new ones with the video camera and I wanted it to be pink. After finding the iPod/iPhone kiosk at Best Buy, I began searching for my iPod. No luck. So I asked the 19 year old sales guy about the iPod I was out to buy, but he informed me that said iPod wouldn't be available until the 30th! The 30th?! I can get it on apple.com for $20 less than the previous model you're offering here and I don't have to wait until the 30th! Damn you, Best Buy. So I bought a bought a mouse and a data transfer cable instead.

This is the mouse I bought. And I love it. It is a Logitech V450 Nano. Look at that little bitty receiver! And when you need to pack your notebook up, the receiver stores INSIDE THE MOUSE! That is the coolest thing for me, since I tend to misplace those damned things.



In other news, Texas @ Wyoming 2:30PM. I plan on watching the game at Doc's Drafthouse while drinking and eating until I can no longer stand. I love football season.

Hook 'em!

I hope you read this, especially if you drive a hybrid

I posted this on 20sb.net as a reply to a whole bunch of people wanting to debate topics. It seemed like there was a lot of, "Can't wait 'till this gets started!" and at lot less, "Yeah, so what do you think about this!?!" So this is what I wrote and I liked it so much I posted it twice. I hope you enjoy it, I hope you learn something and I hope it pisses some people off (only because I know it will).

I voted for Obama, but I think outside the health-care issue (which I've not been following too closely, I'll admit), he's done nothing but hurt our economy more. Do I think McCain would have fared better? Definitely not. However I'm unable to fully support him right now due to decisions he's made that were downright stupid.

CARS? Are you serious? Not only was that a phenomenal failure among economists, but it pissed off AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY (That wasn't already fucking pissed at him anyway). Although the program was designed to remove less-than-stellar MPG rated cars from the highways and replace them with "greener", more fuel-efficient vehicles, some economists and ecologists agree it did no noticeable difference in the economy or ecology. Reasons being many, including: 1) Hybrids have a comparable carbon footprint to large SUVs due to the mining, manufacturing and shipping of the lithium-ion and nickel-cadmium batteries used to supply power for the hybrid motors. 2) This program just told America, "Please, go buy ANOTHER car you can't afford and will never pay off. Please, go get yourself into more debt because your debt is what GOT US HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE." (I'm not saying everyone or anyone who has ever had their car/boat/home/etc. repossessed/forclosed intentionally never paid their debt, I'm just pointing out the harsh difference between what the government was telling us to do six months ago, versus what this government sponsored program is telling us what to do now.) Meanwhile #3 seems to take the irony cake...3) Sodium silicate is the chemical that is used in replacement of engine oil to lock up the engine in a "clunker". After the engine reaches operating temperature the sodium silicate begins to turn to glass, seizing the engine. During an engine seize, the vehicle may burst a full radiator (full of ethylene glycol, you must remember, as these are older vehicles requiring only the old standard "green" antifreeze), or split a block (although they drained and replaced the engine oil some remains), potentially starting a fire (from any NUMBER OF PLACES ON AN OVERHEATING CAR), and then a huge mess to put it out. All because this little 2001 Ford Explorer only got 17 MPG. If you can seriously tell me that burning a quart of used motor oil or dumping 2 gallons of antifreeze into our groundwater (Really. It's an explosion. You can't seriously expect them to COLLECT all that fluid.) is better in the long run than replacing a few older vehicles that I'm sure some less-than-fortunate family would more than LOVE to have, I think you deserve an award.

Bam. So there it is. I don't think your Corolla's dumb (yeah, I kinda do), and I don't think your Aveo is dumb (I just think you're dumb for buying that Korean piece of shit. I kid, I kid. No. Really. Trade it in.), I just think that if you have something that gets you around and passes inspections, why not just keep it? It'll probably cost you less in the long run.

Maybe I can do this for real

Is being a grown up different than being an adult? As an adult, you pay bills, go to work, take care of chores, etc. How is that different from being a grown up? I know that I don't feel like a grown up; I feel like a kid with a lot of responsibilities. Now, not to say that I'm happy to feel like a kid, but every now and then the twinge of "grown up" clashes with who I am.

I'm grateful to have the things in my life that I do. My serious boyfriend, my career, my house, my car. But over the last few months it's occurred to me that I don't always like the responsibility that comes with these things and I find myself longing for a limitless, nearly responsibility free life that I led as a teenager. As I've come to realize the laundry doesn't do itself, the kitchen doesn't self-clean and the dishes don't self-wash. Whenever I find that I'm bored, I know it isn't because I don't have something to do, it's because I don't want to do what needs to be done. So today, in an attempt to balance my social life, home life, work life and housework, I've started a new plan. I will no longer let my laundry pile up or let the bathrooms get gross. Basically, I'm going to start taking care of the house and my life like I'm actually responsible for it and the way I want other people to see me.

Let's see how long this "grown-up" thing lasts. I hope it doesn't get in the way of my kid inside me.

My netbook has a new friend!

Something pretty important to me happened today. I bought a new laptop. Previously, I had been using my little netbook for a primary computer, and it just wasn't cutting it. Sitting on the couch with my netbook in my lap, growing more frustrated with the lack of speed and the inability to watch any video on it without it skipping, I pointed my browser to frys.com and proceeded to pick out a primary laptop. I had too many questions about all the options I had so I packed my little pink Acer into my bag and headed down to the store. When I got there I had half-way almost made my selection until I saw the one I bought. I could bore you with specs my $500 laptop has, but I think by saying it was only $500 probably sums that all up. But I really like it and it is enough for me. My new, only marginally less portable, friend is a Gateway T-Series and so far it is holding up to my demands.

Chance went out to run some errands, I bet he'll be pretty surprised when he gets back. That will raise our computer count to three and maybe his blood pressure too.